REVIEW: THE GIRL YOU LOST, BY KATHRYN CROFT

In the opening pages of The Girl You Lost,we meet a character who has been victimized, and as we learn more about her, we are immediately curious as to her connection to a group of unknown narrators whose alternate passages draw us into the sick and nefarious world of a group of young men.

Meanwhile, Simone and Matt Porter are still grieving the loss of their infant daughter eighteen years before. Little Helena, age six months, was grabbed from her grandmother in the park.

Suddenly we are watching as a young woman named Grace Rhodes approaches Simone with a story that seems unbelievable…and incredible, at best. She is the young woman victimized in the beginning and she has a story to tell. Can she be believed? Could Grace be the missing child Helena? But just as Simone is pondering the story, Grace disappears. Did she give up when she realized that her lies had been uncovered? Or is there more going on?

Intense and thrilling, we are left wondering who the young men are and what, if anything, they have done to Grace and others.

In the end, while I was not completely surprised by the connections between the characters, the behavior of one in particular stunned me.

Set in London, the story kept me intrigued, even as I had a sick feeling of dread about what would ultimately be revealed.